Where In The Universe #30

It’s time once again for the Where In The Universe Challenge. Hard to believe we’ve done thirty of these already, and our readers are getting really good at this. The goal of the WITU challenge is to test your skills and visual knowledge of our universe. Guess where this image is from, and give yourself extra points if you can guess which spacecraft is responsible for the image. Mull over the image, make your guess and post a comment if you’re brave enough. Check back tomorrow at this same post to find the answer and see how you did. Good luck!

UPDATE (11/20): The answer has now been posted below. If you haven’t made your guess yet, no peeking before you do!!

Photograph courtesy NSSDC/GSFC/NASA

Again, nice job everyone! Yes, this is the surface of Venus, taken by the Venera 9 lander before it quickly succumbed to the heat and pressure of the planet. From June to October 1975, the Russian space probe Venera 9 became the first craft to orbit, land on, and photograph Venus. Venera 9 consisted of two main parts that separated in orbit, an orbiter and a lander. The 5,070-pound (2,300-kilogram) orbiter relayed communication and photographed the planet in ultraviolet light. The lander entered the Venusian atmosphere using a series of parachutes and employed a special panoramic photometer to produce 180-degree panoramic photos of the surface of the planet.

I agree, surface of Venus taken by a Russian lander. Verna 9, October 20 1975 — panoramic picture. (I sort of cheated and went to a web site. I knew at once it was Venus, but was not sure which Russian probe.) http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm

Although I knew I had seen this picture within the last few months (APOD, probably) and knew that this was a place where I don’t visualise rocks. Anyway, I couldn’t come up with anything better than Titan and Huygens.

A couple of years ago somewhere on the web I saw the pre-processed images from Soviet originals – most of the ones I’ve seen throughout my childhood in 80s were copies of copies of copies and they looked really bad.

A couple of years ago somewhere on the web I saw the pre-processed images from Soviet originals – most of the ones I’ve seen throughout my childhood in 80s were copies of copies of copies and they looked really bad.

Does anyone have the color copy of this image or a similar one on the surface of Venus? It wasnt a color photo but they added realistic color afterward and the sky is like bright yellow or something, its a cool looking shot.

Venus (venera), it’s an image that really stuck in my mind as a child, I was so fasinated by it at the time, and still am. It’s one planet I wish we could see more of. Btw the venera program was the first to transmit photos from the surface of another planet and I think that’s why when they came out I was just blown away to see them.

This is one of the few pictures of the surface of Venus. Once you’ve seen it, you’re never able to forget it.
The fact there are so few pictures was due to the fact that the landing probe only resisted the heat on the surface for few moments.

That’s the surface of Venus, as shot by one of the Soviet Union’s successful Venera probes. I saw this for the first time I think in the mid-1970s, in the newspaper, and then numerous times after that, in scientific periodicals, astronomy texts, and on the Internet. It’s a shame nobody’s followed up on the Soviet series of Venus probes and landers; today we could probably build an even ruggeder lander, one that could survive several hours on Venus’s surface, sample the chemistry of the soil, and acquire other data that would be invaluable for planetary science and studies of the Solar System and its origins. Something to shoot for in the future.